Thursday, January 08, 2009

Some random thoughts for a Thursday

1) Almost old news by this point in the day, but the Red Sox made two additions to their roster today. They signed Rhode Island native Rocco Baldelli, who played last year with the Tampa Bay Rays. He's suffered from some health problems in recent years, but made a comeback during the '08 season - a great story that is being celebrated at tonight's Boston Baseball Writers Dinner. He's being awarded the Tony Conigliaro Award - the same award that Mike Lowell won several years ago.

The other signing is John Smoltz. Of course, I'm well familiar with "Smoltzy" - he's been a part of the Atlanta Braves organization for nearly his whole career. From SI:

Smoltz, who has 210 career victories, 154 saves and a 3.26 earned-run average, is the only pitcher in major-league history with more than 200 wins and 150 saves. He is the winningest pitcher in post-season annals, with a 15-4 record. He won the 1996 NL Cy Young Award with 24 regular-season wins, and plays golf well enough to comfortably play 18 or 36 holes with his good buddy Tiger Woods.

I wrote earlier how I wished Smoltz and Glavine had chosen to retire this year with Greg Maddux, allowing them all to enter the Hall of Fame together. Now, I'm kind of glad he didn't retire - I think he'll make a great addition to the rotation. He's being touted as a starter, but I see him more in the reliever role. And like Tim Wakefield, he's the kind of player/teammate who will play in whatever role the team needs him. Bravo, Theo

But it is ironic that out of the Big Three, it's not Massachusetts-born Glavine who'll be on the mound in Fenway.

2) Still no catcher, however. Interestingly, there seems to have been very little interest in Tek so far - which may be good for the Sox. In a little more time, Boras may be willing to lower his expectations and deal with the front office. It would kill me to see Tek in another uniform (although I'd deal with it - eventually), and if they could cut a one or two year deal with him, I think it would benefit the pitching staff and the team.

3) The MLB Network is awesome! On Tuesday night, they began running "Ken Burns' Baseball," an 18 1/2 hour documentary series. I somehow missed seeing it when it was originally run by PBS, so I am excited about the opportunity to see it. Within five minutes of the start, I was already welling up - just listening to Bob Costas talk about "the beautiful game."

If only to add the achievements of the Boston Red Sox in the new century, Ken Burns will return to the subject of his most popular documentary, "Baseball," with an update.

"The Tenth Inning," due out in spring 2010, will cover the 16 years of baseball since the original 1994 series, seen by 48 million viewers.

And, according to the tease last night, Kevin Millar will be in studio tonight on Hot Stove!!

4) Off baseball, but still on tv: I love the show "Spectacle," which is broadcast on the Sundance Channel Wednesdays at 9pm. Elvis Costello is host for a show about music, musicians, and musical influences with a wide variety of guests. For example, he's interviewed Bill Clinton about his musical preferences and experiences; and James Taylor was on, playing cuts off his new cd "Covers" (which is great!) and talking about his background. Last night was the best episode so far: the Police! He interviewed each man separately, which led to some fun comments by Sting about Stewart Copeland, and Copeland about Sting. Sting also jammed with Elvis, which was really cool. Elvis is a surprisingly good interviewer and host, asking some off-beat questions and sharing some of his own influences. I loved hearing him and Sting talk about the first time they heard the Clash play and how it effected their musical direction. I look forward to more episodes!

5.) And I'll end with a rant. My local ESPN radio has opted for some hokey, local sports call-in show in place of Turico and Van Pelt in the afternoon. Why couldn't they have eliminated that idiot Colin Cowherd??

What's this about the MLB Network? I guess you aren't watching on Comcast - the lousy buggers told me they aren't carrying it in this market. Yet. I hate to think of it, but I have a fear they never will. But we can watch an entire channel's worth of golf. Yay...